Bisexual Guard Reveals All About Homophobia In High Security Prison
A man in the United Kingdom just won a dismissal lawsuit against his former employer who he claims unjustly fired him following years of homophobic abuse.
According to Queerty, 40-year-old Ben Plaistow was hired as a prison officer at a correctional center called HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes, England back in 2014. In 2016, he was fired after suffering years of verbal and physical abuse from colleagues when they learned he was bisexual. According to Ben’s lawsuit, once word got out that he was bisexual, his supervisor, Vicki Laithwaite, and several other prison officers started harassing him, regularly commenting on his appearance and calling him things like “gay”, “poof”, and “vermin.”
As a result, Ben tried styling his hair differently and stopped having his eyelashes tinted in an effort to avoid being harassed. But this did little to quell the abuse.
The worst of it was when prison officers graffitied Ben’s work bag and his uniform in pink permanent marker. Vicki apparently refused to replace them. When Ben was forced to replace it himself, coworkers scribbled over that one too — with “fairy cake” written inside the bag. Apparently, when Ben complained yet again to Vicki, she threatened to have other officers turn in false reports against him to have him fired.
Ben was fired in 2016. Now this week, a judge determined he was unjustly fired because of his sexuality.
Read more at Daily Mail.
H/T: Queerty